


Good Riddance

by Ixchel_Anima



Series: Eternity Among The Stars [2]
Category: SOMA (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Post-Canon, The Ark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:27:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28893633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ixchel_Anima/pseuds/Ixchel_Anima
Summary: Leaving the ruined Earth behind was never going to be the clean break Catherine wished it would be.
Relationships: Catherine Chun/Imogen Reed
Series: Eternity Among The Stars [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2116620
Comments: 9
Kudos: 7





	Good Riddance

“Do you ever think about where in the solar system we are right now?”

Catherine leant her head into the crook of Imogen’s neck. The inky sky glittered with stars - glowing clouds of reds and purples and deep blues, illuminated and bright, the very same sky they’d both grown up under. They were the same stars they’d seen all their lives, but Catherine never tired of the sight. After so long of not knowing if they’d ever see the sky again, every time she looked up into the night it felt sacred, precious; the stars were their home now, the ARK somewhere out in the unseeable expanse of space.

“If we could see outside the ARK now, we wouldn’t even be able to see the Earth any more. So weird to think about.” Catherine stared up at the moon - waning gibbous, still dominating the sky enough that it cast the dark meadow in a milky glow. She raised her arm, holding the moon between her fingers. “A little blue dot. Our Earth, poof. Gone.”

Imogen grunted next to her. “Good riddance.”

Catherine lowered her arm. “You don’t mean that.” She felt the gentle rise and fall of Imogen’s chest as she let out a sigh.

“No, I don’t.”

Catherine rolled onto her side, turning to face her. “Then what _do_ you mean?” She can't help but think of how not too long ago, this kind of conversation would've scared her. Famously bad with her colleagues, she found herself hopelessly lost navigating the natural give and take of conversation - but Imogen somehow dampened that fear into an almost scientific curiosity, delighting in every little thing she could learn about the other woman. Perhaps it was a side effect of the ARK, success bolstering her confidence. Everything still felt too good to be true.

“I mean I miss _Earth._ Home. I just can’t forget about it that easy. I was born there - thought I’d die there.” Imogen paused, face pulling into a grimace. She corrected herself. “I… I will still die there. Down at the bottom of the ocean, with everyone else." 

Neither woman spoke for a few moments, the silence swallowed up in the gentle ambience of the night - the soft brush of the wind in the grass and the dandelions, their own breathing. When she finally spoke Imogen's voice was barely above a whisper, as if scared of shattering their fragile, simulated paradise. "I can’t stop thinking about how the other me is doing, Cath. She's still down there, in that hell. _I'm_ still down there.”

"Then don’t think about her." Catherine rolled onto her front, blinking up at Imogen's face - her eyes were light years away.

Imogen sat up. “Don’t you think about you? The Catherine still on Earth?”

“I mean, I try not to.” Catherine admitted, hiding her face in the grass. Escaping the underwater station was no easy feat. Even halfway across the solar system wasn't enough to stop the memories of PATHOS-II chasing her down - memories of Earth, before and after the comet, all equally painful to think about for too long. There was nothing left there, not really, but it was impossible not to feel like they'd left something behind - something they'd never get back.

Catherine sucked in a breath “What I do know is... I know I’d want myself to be happy up here. And I am.” She propped herself up onto her elbows, meeting Imogen's eyes, gaze resolute. “I’m proud of what we have up here, and I know she would be too.”

Somewhere nearby was the gentle trickle of water, the distant hum of the nearby city - their city. And although it would never reach the heights of the sprawling metropolises that once peppered Earth's surface, it was just as she had designed, just as Catherine wanted it - _dreamed_ it, down there at the bottom of the sea. What a pipe dream it had been too, until they discovered the Vivarium, and escapism was suddenly an exit strategy and not just another way to fend off the despair. She still rode the high from the interest and genuine love for the project her colleagues had had; maybe this could be how she finally connected with others. Maybe her dreams could hold everyone elses' too, for the next eternity or more.

But maybe she was naive to think that included Imogen.

Her silence somehow said everything. The question had been in the back of Catherine's mind ever since they'd first arrived - one she could never find the courage to ask, terrified of what the answer might be. When her heart finally stopped racing long enough to ask, she barely heard herself speak.

“... Do you not like it up here?”

So much of their lives had changed, and so quickly after the comet that she wondered how much of it was just whiplash. She hoped it was just whiplash - the other option was one she couldn't bring herself to think about.

Imogen rolled over to face Catherine, her short hair falling into the grass and framing her like a fiery halo. Her expression was unreadable. “I don’t mean that I hate it, Cath. It’s… It’s just hard, after everything. I’m still not over the weirdness of it.” Slowly, her hands came up to cup Catherine’s face, the touch warm despite the chill in the air. “I don’t know if I ever will be.”

"I know I'm not the only one who left things behind." Imogen's hands fell from Catherine's face. "It's okay to grieve for it."

Catherine felt her lip wobble. She tried to bite it back, feeling the words dance at the back of her throat yet unable to speak; on some level, she understood that the ARK would never be good enough. The ARK would never be Earth, made new. She could never measure up to the designs of Mother Nature, only hope to accurately imitate what she saw and what she remembered - a commiseration prize for an extinct species.

She thought of Taipei - the city, the people, all the green spaces she had loved so much. Gone - burnt up with the rest of the surface. When her tongue found language again, it came out a whisper.

“I just wish it could be perfect for you.” Catherine turned her eyes up - back to the stars, before settling on Imogen. “For all of us.”

A small, sad smile touched the corners of Imogen’s lips; Catherine couldn't stop staring at them, even as they moved closer, pressing softly to her own.

“I know.”

**Author's Note:**

> I enjoy working on multiple things at once, so here I am throwing another drabble at you. Aimed for cute, ended up with slightly sad. Whoops.


End file.
